Dot All 2017

Pixel & Tonic used the first conference for numerous announcements:

• Craft 3, the Plugin Store, and Commerce 2 will be released on April 4, 2018.
• Craft 3 Release Candidate is now available and includes all major features.
• Craft license - Craft 3 RC1 brings a new license model, which is based on the MIT license.
• New prices - Craft again changes the pricing model or adds to it. The cost of Craft Personal/Client/Pro does not change, but only updates for one year are included. After the first year, the annual prices will be as follows: $39 for the Client Edition and $59 for the Pro Edition. All current Client/Pro licenses will continue to receive free updates. Pixel & Tonic recommends that commercial plugins charge 20% of the base cost as annual update prices.
• Redactor and CKEditor plugins - The rich text field type moves from the core to a separate Redactor plugin. In addition, Pixel & Tonic will offer a CKEditor 5 plugin.
• Commerce 2 - Based on Craft 3, it will cost $999 and feature subscription support and a new payment gateway.
• Commerce Lite - For $199, it is a simple e-commerce solution and serves small websites that can do without shipping, sales, multi-checkout, and more.

The Dot All conference is an excellent replacement for the digital-only Craft Summits. You can exchange ideas with other developers and designers on site and expand your network. But afterward, it's just as possible to catch up on the talks in video form - the best of both worlds.

For the most part, I found the presentations to be successful. Once again, Andrew Welch and Megan Zlock convinced me. But I also got something out of the editorial design and content strategy presentations.

The keynote had some exciting news. Like the Release dates for Craft 3 and Commerce 2, the announcement of Commerce Lite, and the introduction of updated pricing. The latter seems necessary, as the constant free maintenance of plugins is not profitable for developers in the long run. If you want a healthy ecosystem with high-quality plugins, you have to be willing to pay for them. I am curious to see how the community will take this.

I find Commerce Lite interesting, but the functions are too limited to my taste. So that sales will not be possible is absurd.